BORDER TRIP(TYCH)- Tico De La Frontera - a three-part collaborative performance that mixes art enhibits with live performances, The subject is an immigrant’s journey from El Salvador to the United States. The piece aims to develop a language for a more nuanced expression of the place that the migrant occupies in an inclusive social imaginary. http://creative-capital.org/projects/view/283 CROSSING A Body Parted: Shrapnel of Present Time (Un Cuerpo Partido: Esquirlas de Tiempo Presente) The Mural, The Installation and a Live Perfomance Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana ( MACLA) 510 S, First Street San Jose, CA www.maclaarte.org Friday, September 23 – Doors open at 7:30pm, Performance at 8pm Saturday, September 24 – Doors open at 7:30pm, Performance at 8pm Sunday, September 25 – Doors open at 1:30pm, Performance at 2pm $10 at the door; $9:00 in advance; $8:00 with student ID http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/169877 The Performance: A BODY PARTED: Shrapnel of Present Time / UN CUERPO PARTIDO: Esquirlas de tiempo presente Presented at MACLA as a world premiere, A Body Parted: Shrapnel of Present Time / Esquirlas de tiempo presente is the second performance panel of the “Border (TRIP)tych” Project by San Francisco-based collective Secos & Mojados. The project aims to generate a ritual/visual narrative focused on a migrant’s journey as she leaves her home in Latin America and arrives in the US searching for a better life. Continuing the work that began with Part One (Buried In The Body of Remembrance), the (TRIP)tych’s second installment follows the difficult path of a woman as she migrates north, asking the audience to rethink the prevalent stereotypical images of immigrants in our society. A Body Parted examines the immigrant’s moment of crossing as she is compelled to leave her homeland in el Sur (the south), and the process of being divided –by the landscape, memories, dreams, and a new life on the other side– begins to take hold of her. The notion of crossing presents the work with layers of rich meaning to unpack, but central to these all is the intersection and interplay between the unforgiving nature of the borderland itself, and the realization that the promise of crossing from a past of struggle into a future of possibilities may not hold together after all. Rather, the brutality of the landscape and its perils may foretell of more hardships to come, new struggles made worse by the uncertainty and loneliness of displacement, informed by the logic of dreams of a darker nature. A Body Parted does not employ live spoken text as a primary storytelling mechanism; rather, it is embedded in gestures and live actions by Violeta Luna and an original live score by David Molina, and grounded in the multimedia installation Utopia/ Nightmare: The American Dream by Victor Cartagena with sound components by David Molina, which will remain on view in MACLA's gallery through October 16. The piece is structured by Roberto Varea with dramaturgy by Antigone Trimis, a process that we invite the audience to actively take part of. The recently unveiled 45-foot digital mural by Cartagena on the center's Williams Street façade is also part of the overall project. By telling the story of the immigrant through this rich interdisciplinary collage, Secos & Mojados aim to cut through reductionist discourses, and render a marginalized subject profoundly human in spite of her oppressive circumstances. A human being made of dreams realized and broken who draws a new map on the sand, challenging, reaffirming, and seeking to establish a geography quite different from the official cartography. performance video - Roberto G. Varea Part 2 Installation: UTOPIA/NIGHTMARE: THE AMERICAN DREAM / UTOPIA/PESADILLA: EL SUEÑO AMERICANO Installation by Victor Cartagena with sound elements by David Molina Every night we rest our head on a pillow and we are quickly on our way to a far away place; our dreams are journeys to utopian lands or nightmarish realities.  The “American Dream” shifts and transforms in our grasp.  We seek out in this dream a better future, one that our own country could not offer, but often the journey itself and the destination fail the dreamer.  We become a second-class citizen, cheap labor, a “product” that is often trafficked illegally with the blessing and knowledge of the country of origin.  We become remittance that is mailed back “home,” and for this we are an integral part of globalization.  Exporting cheap labor becomes a vicious cycle that drains a country of its brain and labor power in exchange for cash that is reintroduced in the consumer market. In this installation I project the dangers of the journey of this route to the North. The conceptual map of the installation, with its use of red lines made out of yarn, represents migration routes full of emotional and physical turmoil; routes of violence and death. It is also a graphic representation of the journey, this crossing of borders, deserts, oceans, rivers, mountains and all possible terrains.  The journey from the South to the North of the Americas is also integrally connected with the mural on the façade of MACLA representing maps drawn on our immigrant faces that correspond to physical and emotional trajectories.  Passport photos were used for both the mural and the video projected on South First Street; a testament of the journey. This installation, along with the sound elements created by David Molina, invites the viewer to feel and think about the impact of immigration on those who are either willingly or more often forced to leave their homeland in search of a new one; this is also at the heart of the work of Secos & Mojados, as it is explored more fully  in the upcoming performances. - Victor Cartagena Digital Mural: by Victor Cartagena Funded in part by Creative Work Fund and Creative Capital Foundation LEAVING Buried in the Body of Remembrance Enterrada en el cuerpo del recuerdo When: March 5-6, 8:00 p.m. Where: MCCLA Theater, Mission Street, San Francisco CA 94110 Tickets: $10-15 sliding scale Buried in the Body of Remembrance / Enterrada en el cuerpo del recuerdo (Trip)tych  II Urges us to rethink the prevalent stereotypical images of immigrants in our society, Buried… examines a woman’s moment of parting in a powerful, multi-media performance. As she is compelled to leave her homeland in Latin America, she begins to take inventory of what she will take with her, and what she will forever leave behind. Buried... is a project of Creative Capital and presented in co-sponsorship by the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. (Photos)